


captainsoldiersurgeon

by shelleysprometheus



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: John Watson in Afghanistan, John getting injured, POV John Watson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-05-10 05:24:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14730771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shelleysprometheus/pseuds/shelleysprometheus
Summary: Because he is all these things.





	captainsoldiersurgeon

_captainsoldiersurgeon_

 

Because of all these things, John knows what it is like to see the unseeable. The passage of time slowing and stilling, tracing the path of a bullet through the front of a weathered stone wall. And following, in that instant, the crack forming from the bottom to the top, splitting and splintering the stone. Because he is all these things.

 

_captainsoldiersurgeon_

 

Because of all these things, John knows what it is like to feel the unfeelable. The journey of a projectile through flesh, piercing the gap in the front of his armor, to the blade at his back. And comprehending, in that moment, that if it does not pass cleanly, that it will bounce around inside his shoulder and cause irreparable damage. Because he is all these things.

 

_captainsoldiersurgeon_

 

Because of all these things, John knows what it is like to hear the unhearable. The voices of men become shrill with danger and fear, struggling to stem the flow of blood from bodies while protecting them from the bullets that would cause even greater loss. And understanding, in that moment, that by the time this is over, they will have lost half the men they started the day with and that one of them may be him. Because he is all these things.

 

_captainsoldiersurgeon_

 

Because he is all these things, John knows what it is like to taste the untasteable. The tang of iron in his mouth, on blood on his tongue, pushing up from where the bullet has pierced the tissue of his lung. And comprehending that with enough blood accumulating in around the outside of the lung, it won't be long before it stops being able to expand, and collapses. Because he is all these things.

 

_captainsoldiersurgeon_

 

Because of all these things, John knows what it is like to smell the unsmellable. The reek of alcohol and antiseptic in the field hospital, the whole place tinged with with an airborne sickness of despair and death. And witnessing soldiers ignoring the pain in their bodies, the fear in their eyes, all wishing that they could be anywhere but this place. Because he is all these things.

 

_captainsoldiersurgeon_

 

Because he is all these things, John knows he will never be any of those things again.


End file.
